Steenbergs Tamarind Paste

Steenbergs Tamarind Paste is a specialist spice. It’s a traditional souring agent used across India. Our concentrated paste is a great way to use tamarind.

It is made from tamarind fruit pulp and water that is boiled to a thick black paste.

Tamarind’s flavour is acidic, with an initial sourness followed by a ripe sweetness of tropical fruit. Its sourness offsets the heat of chillis. Adjectives that come to mind: tangy: acidic, tingling, refreshing, reminiscent of unripe peaches.

In India and Southeast Asia, it is cooked with in chutneys, curries, sambhars, pickles and preserves. In the UK, it’s in brown sauce and Worcestershire sauce.

Axel’s Spice Notes are: Acidic, sharp fruity flavours that add sourness to curries or use in making chutneys and relishes.

Food Pairing: Vindaloo, stir fries, tom yom soup, pickles, most vegetables, fish, shellfish, chicken, lentils, lamb.

More about Tamarind

The tamarind tree is a medium-sized tropical tree, called Tamarindus indica. This grows up to 18 m high with spreading branches.

Tamarind trees make a large canopy of shade. It has small oval, pale-green leaves in a feather-like pattern and little clusters of red and yellow flowers.

After flowering, the fruits develop. These are 10 cm long, light green-brown pods.  Each pod contains about 10 seeds surrounded by a sour pulp, which begins to oxidize when the pod opens.

To make tamarind concentrate:

• Harvest the pods.
• Remove the outer pod and separate the pulp from the seeds.
• Boil the pulp with water to concentrate the paste.
• Strain the thick liquid to clean out any impurities.